First Day of School

Evelyn was so excited to start Kindergarten.

Here is a picture of Evie and her new teacher Ms. Randolph. Evelyn likes her being the teacher because she plays games.

Here is Grandma and Grandpa Pirate, Auntie Denise and Evelyn on open house night.

Evelyn and Joey pose for pictures.

Shawn and I can't believe our little girl is grown up and will be riding the bus the four blocks to school. It feels so good to send her off when she is excited to learn. I hope she stays that way.

Here she is getting on the bus. There are three adults on the bus: the driver, a person to help her on the bus, and someone to help with the seat belts.

The first day of school was amazing for Evelyn, she was so excited she couldn't tell us anything about it. We pretty much had to drag it out of her. They had lunch, played games and went on a gingerbread man hunt. She strives every day to get a green star from her teacher. Any other color will mean that she miss behaves. When she leaps off the bus at the end of the day she tells us right away what color she got. She is very proud of herself and we are proud of her.

The Newest Addition Is....

Josephine Iszabella

She was born just 3 days after Evelyn's birthday. Here are some pictures. She weighed in at 6 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long.

All wrapped up. First picture with Mommy and Daddy.

She already has Daddy in the palm of her hand!

Joey had to go to the NICU for breathing problems. Luckily, she was only there for a short time.

Finally, they let me be with my baby. It was a long time before I could spend any time with her, Shawn didn't come to the NICU because he wasn't feeling well and didn't want to get the babies sick.

Our very first family photo.

Who came first the Chicken or the Egg?

The answer is Evelyn.

We celebrated Evie's birthday on July 16th with many family and friends. It was a luau themed party with a trip to the pool and then food and fun in our backyard. Evelyn had a great time. It was truly a day to remember.

Shawn got his first opportunity to use a friend's smoker and really enjoyed it. I often catch him looking through the cookbook for ways to smoke different things. If I were in Kentucky I'd say the squirrels better watch out!

Here are some pictures from the big day.

5 Years Old!
Cake decorated by Grampy Mickschl, enough for an army!
The army playing in the backyard.
Evie and her friends
Enjoying cake.

Barefoot and Pregnant in Kentucky

Just trying to fit in. 40 days to go!

9 months and counting

Wow....My co-worker said today, "she shouldn't be doing that, she's 9 months pregnant". (And I didn't, for those of you concerned.) This sounded so foreign to me. Just a little over 6 weeks to go before the newest Mickschl comes into our family.

Evelyn has plans for a huge party/carnival/festival complete with merry go round, hay rides, cotton candy and sno cones. We asked her when she was going to get a few jobs to pay for all of her planning and she said "wait a minute, hold on, we'll make this stuff ourselves."

My blood pressure is good. It was 104/70 the other day. No signs of bed rest, for that I am very thankful. I'm still waiting for my nesting instinct to kick in, of course, I've never been much of a nester. We'll see what happens. This baby is on the move already. I don't remember Evelyn being so active. Flips and turns, jabs and pokes. I don't know which end is up, but I'm sure it has been there several times. It must know that to survive in our house you have to be ready to hit the ground running. Evie likes to come over and say things into my belly button to the baby, I don't know what she is saying half the time, but I'm sure the baby is getting used to the big sister hollering at it.

Our Little Angel

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

This was our first Christmas away from home and it was a busy one. Evelyn was in a Christmas pageant at church. Visit http://www.numcky.org/ to view pictures from the pageant. Evelyn did a fantastic job and even had a solo!
We missed our family tremendously, but did enjoy the season. We continued our tradition with our family Christmas Eve party with made from scratch angel food cake and a birthday party for Jesus.

On Christmas Day we hosted an "I'll not be home for Christmas Party" for anyone that would not be with family. It was a fun filled afternoon with friends. Shawn even got to play poker.

Holiday Review

Hello Everyone!

We have been one busy family. Let me just say that one more time. We have been one busy family. I used to complain that I didn't have anything to do at work. Now I have so much to do that I'm even getting to work overtime. This is great at this time because we are working on becoming debt free. This will be a long process with a lot of sacrifices, but we are prepared to work on it whole heartedly. Shawn has picked up a second job to work on this as well.

Shawn has been accepted to Asbury Seminary. God sure has a plan for us and he seems to be moving it in fast forward right now. Call Shawn sometime and ask him about it.

Evelyn is busy with school and dance. A few weeks ago she had a dance recital. She is a ham and loves to be on stage. Her class danced to I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. Here are some pictures from that day.

Some down time before the recital.
Evie is the tallest in her class, but not the oldest.

We snuck back on stage after the performance and took a few family pictures.

Daddy and Evie always a photogenic pair.

Fall is Here

We are a busy family this fall.

Shawn: Shawn has gotten a second job. He is the drum line instructor for Lexington Christian Academy. www.lcamarchingeagles.org. He is really enjoying sharing his experience with the drummers. The group has a lot of talent and potential. Shawn is very excited at this new opportunity. He is also taking 2 classes at the community college in town. We're that much closer to finishing his Bachelors. Yeah!

Tammy: Tammy continues to work at UK in Audiology. She has taken a new job, within this same group, that keeps her busy. www.ukhealthcare.uky.edu/services/audiology/index.htm. At church she is volunteering in the nursery and learning the sound board. Instead of taking a class at the community college she has joined the gym at work and hopes to spend some time there.

Evelyn: Evelyn is in pre-school at Trinity Christian Academy. www.tcalex.org. She loves going to school and being a helper. There are many kinds of helpers in her class and she can't wait to tell us which one she has been that day. Her first field trip was scheduled and rained out. They have rescheduled her trip to the apple orchard. She continues to take ballat/tap classes and is enjoying Ms. Mindy's class. www.jscd.net. We tried to sign her up for swim lessons, but they would not let her because of her age. Her previous swim teacher said she would be fine for the lowest level being offered at the time even though the age group was 6-12. We'll try again next swim session.

We are starting a new adventure as a family. We are participating in Financial Peace University. www.daveramsey.com. This class is being offered at a church near our house and will help us obtain and use the tools that we need to become debt free. Shawn and I are very excited to be working on this and perhaps helping teach the class to people at our own church.

Fall is Here

The weather in Kentucky has been interesting. Just last week it was in the 90's and humid, now it is cool and sweatshirt weather.

This fall has found our family quite busy.

Shawn:

Shawn has taken a second job as a drum line instructor at Lexington Christian Academy. http://www.lcamarchingeagles.org He is having a great time and is having a lot of fun. He says the drummers he is in charge of have great talent and is excited to share his experiences with him. Competitions days are going to be long for Shawn. After going in and working at the bakery he heads off to the competition not to return home until after 10:00p.m.

Tammy:

Tammy continues to work at UK Audiology

She's a Monkey

Evelyn tries her hands and feet at climbing the tree in our front yard. Videography work by Denise. She is here for a week after bringing Evelyn back to Kentucky from Minnesota.

I'm not as high tech as my friends in Australia (see Brooke, Ben and Zoe), but if you click on the box on top of this post you can see the video of Evie climbing.

She's A Fish

Evelyn has been enjoying swimming lessons at the pool in Nicholasville. She started out in the "Pike" level and was moved up during her first lesson to an "Eel". She has recently graduated from the "Ray" class and just needs to take one more set to finish her Pre-school swim series.

Here are some pictures of her adventures in the pool.

Evelyn loves going off of the diving board. This is the first time she did it and there was a teacher behind her and one below. She now jumps off the board on a regular basis, by herself.

Here is our little graduate from the Eel class.

The YMCA teaches boat safety and what to do if you fall out. Miss Ashley is Evie's teacher. In her class are Nathaniel, Evelyn, Emma, and Tia.

This is the waterslide at the park. Evelyn likes to go down the open one.

Evelyn has now graduated from the Ray class.

We are so proud of our little "fish".

Red, White, and Blue Ribbon

The 4th of July found us once again at the "Wilmore, Festival of the Fourth." This is the perfect way to celebrate our time in Kentucky. As well as the freedoms that we have. The ability to pray, worship and profess our love and belief of God openly without fear. We awoke at a leisurely time and walked around town, through the parade route, to find the perfect spot. It was certainly a change from last year. About every half a block or so we had someone that we recognized or knew who we were shout out a hello. This will come in handy when I run for Constable. ;-)

Our favorite part of the parade the "Lawn Mower Brigade."

You can't beat 15 cent hot dogs and cheap watermelon.

Shawn entered the town's Apple Pie baking contest, and Won! There were no rules and Shawn made a great pie. He upset a few of the ladies that also entered, when he told them it was a refrigerated pie crust from Pillsbury. They also had a few things to say about the carmel on top of the pie. They said "it is un-American and not traditional." Shawn received a blue ribbon, $15 and I think he gets his name in the paper.

Too Much Time at the Bakery?

Evelyn says to me this morning on the way to the bakery.

"For my birthday, I'm going to mix my own colors for my frosting and Grampy is going to ice down my cake." In continuing her train of thought she got distracted and her next sentence came out like this. "I'm going to mix pink and yellow together and I'll get a - cat!"

It was also stated that she wanted a princess and Cars cake. If you ever want to know what Evie is thinking you just have to ask her. Sometimes you don't even have to ask.

Starry Nights

Salutations to Everyone.

Shawn, Evelyn and I are nearing our 1 year anniversary of being here in Kentucky. It has been a great adventure so far and we know we are far from done.

The other night was a clear and beautiful evening. We (Evelyn, Shawn and Tammy) drove to a new development not far from town and parked the car and laid in the middle of the road looking at the stars. We were there for over an hour enjoying the quiet. Only one train passed through town during that time and it didn't even blow it's whistle. Usually it doesn't matter what time of day or night it is - they like to blow their whistle. We were watching the starts and thought we saw a shooting star. It turned out to be a lightening bug! It is really something to be laying on the ground and have lighted up bugs float above your face. What God was thinking when he made these creatures? Just little things to amuse those of us that can navigate away from the tv and look for other entertainment?

Ok... this has turned into deep thoughts by Tammy Mickschl.

I saw a sign on the side of a tow truck driving to work this morning. It said...We don't want an arm and a leg just your tows.

More to come later.

Tammy

Spring has Sprung

Spring is well on it's way here in Kentucky. It is now May and Shawn, Evie and I are getting geared up to start a garden. We were blessed to find someone to borrow their rototiller to us to use. We have seeds to plant and lots of hope, prayers, and water. With any luck a garden of vegies may be in our destiny.


The picture below was actually taken at a St. Patrick's Day parade in Lexington. Nothing says Happy St. Patrick's Day like a cow on roller skates. Thank you Chic-fil-A!

This was the first flower that we found in our yard. This picture was also taken in March. This daffodil was promptly picked and moved to a container in the house by Evelyn. We currently are waiting for peonies to bloom in our yard. Evie and I look at them every day and see how they are on their way to opening. Their days are numbered until Evie gets to them and she says makes our house smell so nice.

Evie and I have tried our hand already at planting. These flower in the front yard are still alive!

Shawn and I have finished our classes for Spring of 2007. I got an A in my public speaking class. Yeah! We're taking the summer off. One class was just too much for me. ;-) Shawn is actively applying at Asbury Seminary and hopes to start this fall.

Evie is nearing her recital for dance class. This time around we get to see Evie tapping away with the rest of the kids. Evie is in the class with her friends Serena and Max. This summer we are going to be putting Evie in swimming class. Shawn has visions of swimming in Lake Superior with Evie sometime soon. He wants to make sure that Evie learns to swim like his Grandpa wanted him to learn how to swim.

His IS Risen

HE IS RISEN....

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Happy Easter from the Mickschls

This picture is of Evelyn in her Easter dress. She is a prim and proper princess with her gloves and purse.

Since I managed to miss not only 1 but 2 Easter Egg hunts. We had our own. This picture is of Evelyn after she spied an egg.

Here is Evelyn with all of her eggs.